| Senator Elizabeth Warren's net worth revealed as the 2020 Presidential Election heats up Posted: 24 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  The 2020 President Election is heating up -- and with taxes and finances being some of the biggest areas, here's a look at Sen Elizabeth Warren's net worth.
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| Iran president warns of a region 'on the edge of collapse' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:43 PM PDT  President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States of engaging in "international piracy" against his country by re-imposing economic sanctions after Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran "will never negotiate with an enemy that seeks to make Iran surrender with the weapon of poverty," Rouhani said in his highly anticipated speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
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| A Wisconsin prisoner just reportedly confessed to the 'Making a Murderer' killing Posted: 24 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT  The director of a new documentary about the case told Newsweek that the inmate told filmmakers he was responsible for the notorious slaying.
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| Young boys tortured in Kashmir clampdown as new figures show 13,000 teenagers arrested Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:55 AM PDT  A new report claiming thousands of Kashmiri children have been incarcerated has cast doubt on claims life is returning to normal in the state. After visiting Kashmir, activists found around 13,000 boys have been detained since its autonomous status was revoked on Aug 5. The report, led by the National Federation of Indian Women, detailed claims that boys - some as young as 14 - had been imprisoned for up to 45 days. It also claimed that families were paying up to 60,000 rupees (£678) for their children's release. The Muslim-majority state has been under a rigid curfew and communications blackout since Article 370 and Article 35A were removed last month. The Jammu and Kashmir government said there is "no centralised figure" for numbers of Kashmiris who have been arrested during the crackdown. Kashmir | Read more On Monday, however, the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army said any stories of disruption were a "narrative being driven by separatists." Krishna Saagar Rao, chief spokesperson of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told the Telegraph it had detained Kashmiri politicians to ensure stability in the state. "Politicians in the Kashmir valley were plotting to create unrest amongst people by instigating them," said Mr Rao. According to government data, over 200 local politicians have been detained, including former Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah. Official data on the number of children imprisoned has not been released. It is also unclear why minors have been arrested, although it is believed some have been detained for throwing stones at army personnel. An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard in Srinagar Credit: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images The activists visited Kashmir between September 17 and 21 and interviewed members of the Jammu and Kashmir police, doctors and professors. Their report claims the authorities used excessive force when arresting the boys, and that some have been tortured while imprisoned. Domestic and international media has detailed the use of torture against Kashmiris, including beatings and electric shocks. On Saturday, a 15-year-old boy committed suicide in Srinagar after allegedly being assaulted by the army. "It is [an] Indian variant of genocide," said Annie Raja, the General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women. Ms Raja's organisation has called on the India to release all children detained in Kashmir since August 5.
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| Stacey Abrams is breaking all the rules in the best way possible Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:52 PM PDT  When it comes to politics, Stacey Abrams is a powerhouse -- and she has no plans on slowing down anytime soon.
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| GM and UAW union making progress in talks for new labor deal: sources Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:30 AM PDT  General Motors Co and the union that represents its 48,000 striking hourly workers in the United States have made progress in talks toward a new labor deal but are grappling with issues over the pay and job security of newer and temporary workers, two people familiar with the talks said on Wednesday. United Auto Workers (UAW) Vice President Terry Dittes told union members in a statement issued late in the day that "all unsettled proposals are now at the Main Table and have been presented to General Motors. UAW members went on strike at GM on Sept. 16 seeking higher pay, greater job security, a bigger share of the leading U.S. automaker's profit and protection of their healthcare benefits.
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| Watch Out: Ukraine's Military Is Much Better Than It Was in 2014 Posted: 24 Sep 2019 11:14 AM PDT  A vast improvement.
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| Sanders Calls for ‘National Wealth Registry’ to Enforce New Tax Posted: 24 Sep 2019 09:27 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday rolled out his plan to levy an "extreme wealth tax" on millionaires and billionaires, which he plans to enforce through the creation of a "national wealth registry.""Today, the United States has more income and wealth inequality than almost any major country on Earth, and it is worse now than at any time since the 1920s," Sanders said in his proposal.Sanders' annual tax on the top 0.1 percent would apply to Americans with a net worth of over $32 million, or about 180,000 households, and would raise approximately $4.35 trillion over the next decade, the Sanders campaign estimates.The Vermont senator's plan seeks to combat capital flight and other forms of tax avoidance through a "national wealth registry" and the addition of "significant additional third party reporting requirements." The proposal calls for increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service to cover the bureaucratic costs associated with enforcing the wealth tax.Under the plan, the IRS will be required to audit 30 percent of the top one percent's wealth tax returns and 100 percent for billionaires.The tax would start at one percent for a married couple with $32.5 million and would progressively increase one percent for each bracket up to eight percent for those with a net worth of $10 billion. Those rates would be halved for single individuals.The new tax will partially fund Sanders' Medicare for All plan as well as his affordable housing and universal childcare plans.Sanders argues there has been a "massive transfer of wealth from those who have too little to those who have too much" over the last three decades."Under this plan, the wealth of billionaires would be cut in half over 15 years which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class," the progressive candidate said.Sanders' plan goes beyond Senator Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax plan, which would impose just a 2 percent tax on families with $50 million and a 3 percent tax on those with $1 billion.
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| Mother of boy killed in Sandy Hook shooting pays touching tribute: 'I feared today' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook paid a touching tribute to him on Twitter this week.
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| In-Depth Photos of the 2020 Porsche Taycan Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| Off-duty officer won't be charged in deadly Costco shooting Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:36 PM PDT  An off-duty Los Angeles police officer will not be charged for fatally shooting a mentally ill man who had attacked him and his young son from behind in a California Costco, prosecutors said Wednesday. In announcing a grand jury's findings, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said Officer Salvador Sanchez believed he had been shot in the head and a shooter was on the loose when he and his son were knocked to the ground in the unprovoked assault. Hestrin said his office would not bring its own charges against Sanchez in the wake of the grand jury decision.
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| Rouhani at UN demands Saudis end war in Yemen Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday demanded that Saudi Arabia end its offensive in Yemen after an attack in the oil-rich kingdom which Washington blamed on Tehran. "The security of Saudi Arabia will be guaranteed with the termination of aggression in Yemen, rather than by inviting foreigners," he told the UN General Assembly. Saudi Arabia is leading an air campaign aimed at defeating Iranian-backed Huthi rebels who control much of Yemen, contributing to a humanitarian crisis in which thousands of civilians have died and millions are on the brink of starvation.
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| Meghan Markle just wore the 'perfect work shirt' and it's super affordable Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Just because Meghan Markle is English royalty doesn't mean she always breaks the bank when it comes to her wardrobe.
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| 11-year-old boy drives stolen car 200 miles for Snapchat meetup: South Carolina police Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:43 AM PDT ![11-year-old boy drives stolen car 200 miles for Snapchat meetup: South Carolina police]( "11-year-old boy drives stolen car 200 miles for Snapchat meetup: South Carolina police") The boy told Charleston police that he had driven his brother's car from Simpsonville, North Carolina, about 200 miles away.
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| Former police force partner of Guyger confirms sexual relationship Posted: 24 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT  The police force partner of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger acknowledged that they had a sexual relationship and exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photos the day she shot Botham Jean in his apartment.
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| Scientists answer whether the popular CBD oil trend is legitimate (and legal) Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:28 AM PDT  Culture has dubbed CBD oil a miracle — you can now find it in lattes, food and creams — but is it effective? And is it legal?
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| Doctors in India are stunned by baby born with 4 legs and 3 hands Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:06 AM PDT  The mother was expecting triplets, but ended up delivering twins — one of which seemed to have absorbed extra limbs from the third unborn fetus.
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| Entangled in US scandal, Ukraine's president speaks at UN Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Abruptly cast into the center of a political storm in the United States, Ukraine's president steered clear of the controversy Wednesday as he made his debut at the United Nations, focusing instead on the horrors of war and on his country's ongoing conflict with Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskiy's address at the U.N. General Assembly came less than a day after a formal U.S. House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump was launched — a development that was sparked partly by a July 25 phone call between the two leaders. It has come under scrutiny because Trump prodded Zelenskiy to investigate Trump rival and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
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| Venezuelans accused of smuggling $5 mn in gold into US Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:10 PM PDT  Two Venezuelans have been charged in US federal court with allegedly smuggling $5 million worth of gold bars into the United States in a private airplane. Jean Carlos Sanchez Rojas and Victor Fossi Grieco, who piloted the airplane, were arrested on September 20 at Florida's Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport after US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents discovered the undeclared cargo in the airplane's nose.
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| Meghan Markle shares emotional group hug with young women in Cape Town: 'You guys are going to make me cry' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:58 AM PDT  Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle had an adorable moment with young women outside of mothers2mothers in Cape Town.
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| Florida officer who arrested 2 elementary school children fired; charges dropped Posted: 24 Sep 2019 07:45 AM PDT  Chief Orlando Rolón said Officer Dennis Turner didn't follow department policy requiring him to get approval before arresting minors younger than 12.
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| Here's what the US Air Force has planned for all its bombers Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:56 AM PDT  From the venerable B-52 to the future B-21, the US leads the way in firepower and stealth technology. This is what the US has in the skies.
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| Asylum seekers I meet flee something even worse than Trump's unethical immigration agenda Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:38 AM PDT  Our immigration policies seek to discourage border crossings by making life difficult for migrants. But almost nothing could be worse than going home.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Audi RS7 Sportback Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| Russia Has One Way to Find and Kill U.S. F-22 and F-35 Stealth Fighters Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Can they pull it off?
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| Amputee woman recreates iconic Cinderella scene with gorgeous glass prosthetic arm Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A woman who is missing part of her arm became fed up with a lack of amputee representation in media, so she decided to create her own.
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| UPDATE 4-Trump says trade deal with China could happen sooner than people think Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:45 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Trump says trade deal with China could happen sooner than people think]( "UPDATE 4-Trump says trade deal with China could happen sooner than people think") U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday a deal to end a nearly 15-month trade war with China could happen sooner than people think and that the Chinese were making big agricultural purchases from the United States, including of beef and pork. "They want to make a deal very badly... It could happen sooner than you think," Trump told reporters in New York. Trump said later after signing a limited trade deal with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe there was a good chance of reaching an agreement with China.
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| Deported Army veteran returns to US in bid to become citizen Posted: 24 Sep 2019 08:34 PM PDT  Federal immigration authorities granted Miguel Perez Jr. a two-week parole into the U.S. for an immigration hearing, according to his attorney. The 41-year-old Perez has a green card as a permanent U.S. resident, but after serving time for a 2008 non-violent drug conviction was deported last year. Then last month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a pardon , erasing the conviction and reviving Perez's chances to become a citizen.
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| Chinese heiress and socialite charged with murdering her ex at a California mansion says he was killed in botched kidnap plot Posted: 24 Sep 2019 01:24 PM PDT  A Chinese heiress and Bay Area socialite charged with murdering the father of her two children at her California mansion has denied the charges.
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| Can Someone Be Fired for Being Gay? The Supreme Court Will Decide Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:01 AM PDT  ATLANTA -- The Supreme Court has delivered a remarkable series of victories to the gay rights movement over the last two decades, culminating in a ruling that established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. But in more than half the states, someone can still be fired for being gay.Early in its new term, on Oct. 8, the court will consider whether an existing federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, guarantees nationwide protection from workplace discrimination to gay and transgender people, even in states that offer no protections right now.It will be the court's first case on LGBT rights since the retirement last year of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinions in all four of the court's major gay rights decisions. And without Kennedy, who joined four liberals in the 5-4 ruling in the marriage case, the workers who sued their employers in the three cases before the court may face an uphill fight."Now that we don't have Kennedy on the court, it would be a stretch to find a fifth vote in favor of any of these claims that are coming to the court," said Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia and the author of "Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality."She added that lawyers working to expand gay rights might have focused too narrowly on the right to marry. "The gay rights movement became the marriage rights movement," she said, "and we lost sight of the larger dynamics and structures of homophobia."Other experts said the court should have little trouble ruling for the plaintiffs."Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans continue to face widespread job discrimination because of their same-sex attraction or sex identities," said William N. Eskridge Jr., a law professor at Yale and the author of an article in The Yale Law Journal on Title VII's statutory history. "If the justices take seriously the text of Title VII and their own precedents, LGBT Americans will enjoy the same job protections as other groups."The Supreme Court's earlier gay rights rulings were grounded in constitutional law. Romer v. Evans, in 1996, struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment that had banned laws protecting gay men and lesbians. Lawrence v. Texas, in 2003, struck down laws making gay sex a crime. United States v. Windsor, in 2013, overturned a ban on federal benefits for married same-sex couples.And Obergefell v. Hodges, in 2015, struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, ruling that the Constitution guarantees a right to such unions.The new cases, by contrast, concern statutory interpretation, not constitutional law.The question for the justices is whether the landmark 1964 law's prohibition of sex discrimination encompasses discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Lawyers for the gay and transgender plaintiffs say it does. Lawyers for the defendants and the Trump administration, which has filed briefs supporting the employers, say it does not.The common understanding of sex discrimination in 1964 was bias against women or men, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco wrote. It did not encompass discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."The ordinary meaning of 'sex' is biologically male or female," he wrote. "It does not include sexual orientation."In response, lawyers for one of the plaintiffs, Gerald Bostock, wrote that "a person's sexual orientation is a sex-based classification because it cannot be defined without reference to his sex."Bostock, who spent a decade building a government program to help neglected and abused children in Clayton County, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, said his story illustrated the gaps in protection for gay workers."Everything was going amazingly," he said in an interview in his home. "Then I decided to join a gay recreational softball league."He played catcher and first base for his team, the Honey Badgers, in the Hotlanta Softball League. A few months later, the county fired him for "conduct unbecoming a county employee."Bostock's case is at an early stage, and the reason for his dismissal is contested. His former employer has said it fired him after an audit indicated he had misused county funds, which Bostock denies.In an email, Jack R. Hancock, a lawyer for the county, said, "Mr. Bostock's sexual orientation had nothing to do with his termination."The justices will decide whether Bostock is entitled to try to make his case to a jury. The county insists that Title VII allows it to fire workers for being gay, meaning that the case should be dismissed at the outset."When Congress prohibited sex discrimination in employment approximately 55 years ago," Hancock wrote in a brief, "it did not simultaneously prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."Bostock, 55, grew up in southern Georgia, where he said he "learned the three F's very quickly: family, faith and football." But he found his own calling, he said, when he was assigned to recruit volunteers to represent children from troubled homes in juvenile court."It was my passion," he said. "My employer loved the job I was doing. I got favorable performance reviews. We had great success."Things took a turn, he said, when he became more open about his sexual orientation."When I joined the gay softball league in January of 2013, that's when my life changed," he said. "Within months of that, there were negative comments about my sexual orientation." In particular, he said, he was criticized for recruiting volunteers for the program from the gay community in Atlanta.Bostock said he would attend the Supreme Court arguments in his case, Bostock v. Clayton County, No. 17-1618. "I hope they give me the right to have my day in court, to come back to Georgia and clear my name and have the truth come out," he said.The justices will also hear a companion case, Altitude Express v. Zarda, No. 17-1623. It was brought by a sky diving instructor, Donald Zarda, who said he was fired because he was gay. His dismissal followed a complaint from a female customer who had expressed concerns about being strapped to Zarda during a tandem dive. Zarda, hoping to reassure the customer, told her that he was "100% gay."Zarda sued under Title VII and lost the initial rounds. He died in a 2014 sky diving accident, and his estate pursued his case. His lawyers told the justices that the case could be decided "without ever using the term 'sexual orientation' or 'gay.'""The claim could accurately be framed entirely in terms of sex and nothing else: Zarda was fired for being a man attracted to men," they wrote. "That is sex discrimination pure and simple."Most federal appeals courts have interpreted Title VII to exclude sexual orientation discrimination. But two of them, in New York and Chicago, have ruled that discrimination against gay men and lesbians is a form of sex discrimination.Last year, a divided 13-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York, allowed Zarda's lawsuit to proceed. Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann concluded that "sexual orientation discrimination is motivated, at least in part, by sex and is thus a subset of sex discrimination."Hancock, in his brief for Clayton County in Bostock's case, urged the justices to be wary of what he called a novel interpretation of an old law. "One would expect that, if Congress intended to enact a statute of such magnitude -- socially, culturally, politically and policy-wise -- as one prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," he wrote, "Congress specifically would have so stated in the text of Title VII."The Supreme Court has ruled that it is race discrimination to fire a worker for being a member of an interracial couple. Lawyers for Zarda said the same principle should apply to same-sex couples."Just as firing a white employee for being married to an African American person constitutes discrimination because of race," they wrote, "so firing a male employee for being married to another man constitutes sex discrimination."Francisco, in his brief for the administration, wrote that the analogy did not hold."An employer who refuses to hire an applicant in an interracial relationship would rightly be branded a racist," he wrote. "But no ordinary speaker of English would call an employer who refuses to hire an applicant in a same-sex relationship a sexist."At bottom, the cases may turn on whether the justices focus on the words of the statute or their sense of what the lawmakers who voted for it in 1964 understood they were doing. In a 1998 decision in a Title VII case, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that it was the words that matter."Statutory prohibitions," he wrote, "often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed."If nothing else, Franke said, the cases will explore divisive and difficult issues. "Sex," she said, "is a confounding term in our culture, in our language and certainly in the law."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Humanity must rescue oceans to rescue itself, UN warns Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:50 AM PDT  Two days after a climate summit failed to deliver game-changing pledges to slash carbon emissions, the United Nations warned Wednesday that global warming is devastating oceans and Earth's frozen spaces in ways that directly threaten a large slice of humanity. Crumbling ice sheets, marine heatwaves, melting glaciers, ocean dead zones, thawing permafrost -- a raft of impacts on sea and ice are decimating fish stocks, lifting seas, depleting fresh water stores, and incubating superstorms that will ravage some cities annually by mid-century. Some of these impacts are irreversible on a timescale of centuries, according to a landmark assessment approved by the 195-nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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| Training al-Qaeda and then backing the US after 9/11 was a blunder, says Imran Khan Posted: 24 Sep 2019 09:17 AM PDT  Pakistan's army and military spy agency trained al-Qaeda and then maintained links with the militants afterwards, Imran Khan has said. Pakistan's prime minister said his country had then made a major mistake siding with America during the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. The decision had cost 60,000 Pakistani lives as the country battled Islamist militancy and Pakistan would have been better staying neutral. Mr Khan's comments at a New York think tank came ahead of his speech at the United Nations general assembly this week where he is expected to press the case for international action against India over Kashmir. He has also held meetings with Donald Trump trying to get the American president to restart talks with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. Asked at the Council for Foreign Relations about how Osama bin Laden had managed to stay in Pakistan undiscovered, Mr Khan said: "The Pakistani Army, ISI [military spy agency], trained al-Qaeda and all these troops to fight in Afghanistan. "There were always links between—there had to be links, because they trained them." He said the links were "probably at lower levels", and he did not believe military chiefs had known of Bin Laden's presence. Pakistan PM: "The Pakistani Army, ISI, trained al-Qaida and all these troops to fight in Afghanistan. There were always links between—there had to be links, because they trained them." pic.twitter.com/BZ61P4tgxu— Miraqa Popal (@MiraqaPopal) September 24, 2019 Mr Khan's comments may anger the military. Pakistan's security apparatus has in the past angrily rejected politicians linking it to militancy. Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, faced treason charges last year after an interview where he suggested the Pakistani state played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. Mr Khan said that after the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan had done a 180 degree turn against former militants, to side with America. "I opposed this from day one," Mr Khan said. "I said we had first trained these guys to fight jihad and it was a great idea, and now we are telling the same groups it's terrorism. So we should at least have stayed neutral. Pakistan, by joining the US after 9/11, committed one of the biggest blunders." Mr Khan also said he believed the Taliban had changed since they were ousted in 2001 and were willing to make peace He said: "Taliban realise that they cannot control the whole of Afghanistan. The Afghan government knows that they cannot - you know, there needs to be some sort of a peace deal. There has to be a political settlement."
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| Stock up on Cold-Weather Essentials at Backcountry’s Winter Clearance Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:40 PM PDT |
| Biden rises in poll as Ukraine scandal unfolds, interest in impeachment drops: Reuters poll Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:10 PM PDT  Support for Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden ticked higher following reports that President Donald Trump pressured his Ukraine counterpart to investigate Biden, while Americans overall are less supportive of impeaching Trump than they were months ago, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. In a sign that Biden's supporters appear to be standing by their candidate, 20% of Democrats and independents said they would vote for him in statewide nominating contests that begin next year according to the Sept. 23-24 poll, up 1 percentage point from a similar poll that ran last week. It also found that 37% of the American public thinks Trump should be impeached, down from 41% in a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll that ran earlier in September.
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| Pilot stuck in trees for hours after small plane crashes in NJ Posted: 24 Sep 2019 07:10 PM PDT  Police in New Jersey located the plane entangled in trees about 75 feet off the ground. The pilot was taken to a hospital for observation.
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| The world's first floating nuclear power plant, which activists dubbed 'Chernobyl on ice,' has docked in Russia. Photos show its journey. Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:14 AM PDT  Environmentalists have criticized the concept of floating nuclear plants, arguing that they could be harder to reach during an accident.
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| Tropical Storm Karen is expected to loop-de-loop back towards the Bahamas after soaking Puerto Rico Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:14 PM PDT  Tropical Storm Karen may loop around in the Atlantic, heading back towards the Bahamas, after hitting Puerto Rico with serious rain on Tuesday.
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| Chinese relatives marry, divorce 23 times in scheme Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Eleven Chinese relatives married and divorced each other 23 times within a month to receive apartments given out by the state, Chinese media reported.
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| Death Match: America's F-16s vs. China and Russia's Best Planes (Who Wins?) Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Could America's legendary fighter make it?
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| Hong Kong Protests Threaten Billionaires' Ties With Beijing Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Less than a decade ago, Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, was granted an exclusive audience with China's then-President Hu Jintao, a rare honor. State television lauded the September 2010 meeting, saying Hu lavished praise on the tycoon for contributing to the city's prosperity and stability.These days, as Hong Kong reels from months of violent demonstrations, China's government is weaving a much harsher narrative around the billionaires who dominate the business and politics of the city. In recent weeks, it's linked them to the rising inequality it blames for the social unrest, a new stance that threatens the close ties Hong Kong dynasties have forged with Beijing.While most of Hong Kong's wealthiest families have sprawling property holdings, they also dominate industries from telecommunications to retail, giving them outsize influence. The 20 Hong Kong tycoons tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index -- including moguls like Li and property magnate Lee Shau Kee -- have a combined net worth of more than $200 billion. So any shift in China's posture toward those wealthy families has the potential in coming years to ripple through the city's $360 billion economy.In a scathing article posted on social media earlier this month, China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the nation's most powerful law-enforcement body, lashed out at Hong Kong's property tycoons for "hoarding land and grabbing money." Next, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said the government should take away land from Hong Kong developers through compulsory acquisition."It is very clear that Beijing's attitude toward Hong Kong's property tycoons has changed," said Joseph Wong, who was secretary for commerce, industry and technology under the city's former leader, or chief executive, Donald Tsang.China appears to be encouraging state-backed enterprises to expand in Hong Kong, a special administrative region, and, over the coming years, these companies likely will play a leading role in industries the tycoons have controlled, Wong said.China Mobile Ltd., the mainland's biggest carrier, has increased its subscriber base in Hong Kong by more than 50% since 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Mainland developers, including China Resources Land Ltd., bought almost 60% of the residential land sold by Hong Kong's government in the first half of this year.Representatives at family holding companies of Li and Lee didn't respond to requests for comment.While much of their power comes from these informal relationships, members of the wealthiest families in Hong Kong also have official positions, including on the election committee of about 1,200 people that selects the city's leader. Hong Kong business people sit on the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body that meets once a year in Beijing.Chinese leaders were friendly toward the tycoons when the mainland economy was opening up because they wanted to encourage them to invest across the border, said Ding Yifan, a former senior government researcher who now teaches world economy at Beijing Foreign Studies University."Now that things have hit the fan, they realize there are many things quite unfair in Hong Kong," he said. "Of course they need to deal with these problems."Hong Kong's protests erupted in June in response to a proposed bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. They've continued even after that legislation was shelved, with protesters making other demands, including universal suffrage and an investigation into police actions toward demonstrators.China's office for Hong Kong and Macau affairs this month said it would support Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, in efforts to address social problems such as the housing shortage, the large wealth gap and the difficulty in upward social mobility. Hong Kong has the world's least affordable housing.At the end of July, about half of Hong Kong's new apartments for sale came from five of its largest developers -- including the Li family's CK Asset Holdings Ltd.; Henderson Land Development Co. of the Lee family; and Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., controlled by the Kwok family -- according to an analysis of data from realtor Centaline Property Agency.Meanwhile, half of the city's mobile-phone users subscribe to providers controlled by the Li and Kwok families, according to government data and earnings reports. In some industries, the wealthiest Hong Kong Chinese families share power with dynasties that are a holdover from the British.The Li family's AS Watson Group and Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd., linked to the Keswick family, control 70% of the supermarkets, according to data from Euromonitor International. Representatives for the Kwok and Keswick family businesses declined to comment.Beijing's priority has shifted toward pursuing social equality, said Li Xiaobing, a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin who has written on Chinese regional politics. "The central government wishes tycoons to contribute more to society," Li said. That shift has come as China searches for answers to end Hong Kong's protests.In recent weeks, several tycoons, including real-estate and casino magnate Lui Che-woo, have attempted to show Beijing their loyalty by issuing statements or placing newspaper advertisements condemning violence and pledging full support to the government.Li earlier this month called for the government to "have mercy" on Hong Kong's young people and for the youth to show more understanding. But China's highest law-enforcement body lashed out, accusing Li of encouraging crime. The 91-year-old billionaire then said his remarks were misinterpreted.Hong Kong's billionaire families long hedged their risks because they knew their political and economic favors wouldn't last forever, said Joseph Fan, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studies family-run businesses.Some tycoons, in recent years, sold their businesses to mainland firms. In 2018, former city Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's family sold its stake in a shipping line to state-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. That year, the real-estate arm of Li's business group sold its stake in an office tower, The Center, for about $5 billion to a consortium controlled by mainland companies.Michael Tien, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong and a deputy to China's National People's Congress, expects more mainland firms to play leading roles in Hong Kong industries traditionally controlled by tycoons."In the long run, we all know that the future belongs to mainland Chinese capital," he said.\--With assistance from Dandan Li.To contact the reporters on this story: Shirley Zhao in Hong Kong at xzhao306@bloomberg.net;Bruce Einhorn in Hong Kong at beinhorn1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, Anjali Cordeiro, Michael TigheFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| U.S. judge overturns lobbying conviction of ex-Michael Flynn business partner Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:04 AM PDT  U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga ruled that prosecutors failed to show that Bijan Rafiekian knowingly acted as a secret agent for Turkey's government under Ankara's direction or control, and concealed his role from U.S. authorities. "The verdict was against the heavy weight of the evidence," the judge wrote in a 39-page decision on Tuesday.
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| Meghan McCain addresses 'The View' walk-off: 'We're told by producers to leave' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:26 AM PDT  During her appearance on 'Watch What Happens Live,' Meghan McCain broke her silence on seemingly storming off the set of 'The View' last week.
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